Deck 23: Conservation Genetics

Question 1

What is meant by the effective population size (N?)?

Answer 1

The effective population size is defined as the number of individuals in a population having an equal probability of contributing gametes to the next generation.

Question 2

What is measured by the inbreeding coefficient (F)?

Answer 2

F measures the probability that two alleles of a given gene in an individual are derived from a common ancestral gene.

Question 3

The loss of previously existing genetic diversity from a population or a species is referred to as ________.

Answer 3

genetic erosion

Question 4

What is meant by the absolute population size (N)?

Question 5

Predominantly inbreeding species,such as those that self-fertilize,tend to have greater levels of ________ than ________ diversity.

A)interpopulation; intrapopulation
B)isopopulation; gametopopulation
C)intrapopulation; interpopulation
D)specific; interspecific
E)nonmutant; mutant

Question 6

What are allozymes?

A)multiple versions of a single enzyme in a species
B)multiple genes in a chromosome
C)variations that are lethal in homozygotes
D)variations that give a selective advantage in the heterozygous state
E)multiple forms of mitochondrial DNA

Question 7

Briefly describe the difference between ex situ conservation and in situ conservation.

Question 8

At which levels do most scientists examine genetic diversity?

A)species and kingdom
B)female and male
C)interspecific and intraspecific
D)species A and species B
E)higher and lower forms

Question 9

The shrinking of available habitat reduces populations of wild species and often also isolates them from one another.Individual populations become trapped in pockets of undeveloped land surrounded by areas of agriculture.This process is called ________.

A)isolation
B)stagnation
C)overdevelopment
D)underdevelopment
E)population fragmentation

Question 10

Which experimental technique employs the "obscure" bacterium Thermus aquaticus that was first discovered in a thermal pool in Yellowstone National Park?

A)centrifugation
B)complementation
C)northern blotting
D)PCR
E)electrophoresis

Question 11

When the number of breeding individuals is small,there is a high likelihood of genetic drift.One likely result is ________.

Question 12

When a new population,derived from a small subset of individuals,has significantly less genetic diversity than the original population,it is said to be exhibiting a(n)________.

Question 13

Interspecific diversity refers to diversity ________.

A)between species
B)within species
C)within a particular population
D)within an individual
E)within an isolated population

Question 14

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)estimated that since 1900,________ percent of the genetic diversity in agricultural crops has been lost.

A)20
B)30
C)50
D)75
E)90

Question 15

After a population or species experiences a bottleneck,what might be expected in terms of biodiversity in the survivors?

Question 16

The genetic variation represented by plants and animals is known as ________.

A)biodiversity
B)conservation
C)evolutionary heterosis
D)contract digression
E)None of the answers listed is correct.

Question 17

The number of deleterious alleles present in the gene pool of a population is referred to as the ________.

Question 18

Briefly describe what is meant by a population bottleneck.

Question 19

Briefly describe the common negative aspect of inbreeding depression.

Question 20

The gradual exchange of alleles between two populations brought about by the dispersal of gametes or the migration of individuals is called ________.

Question 21

The effective population size is usually greater than the absolute population size.

Question 22

Intrapopulation genetic diversity increases under prolonged conditions of population fragmentation.

Question 23

Population bottlenecks are generally beneficial to a species because they provide an opportunity to weed out weaker alleles.

Question 24

Describe a potential problem associated with population augmentation.

Question 25

Genetic drift usually leads to a loss of genetic variation.

Question 26

Restriction enzyme polymorphisms allow DNA profiling through the use of electrophoresis.

Question 27

Interspecific diversity and intraspecific diversity provide an assessment of essentially identical parameters.

Question 28

DNA fingerprinting can be applied to problems involving endangered species because,with the DNA fingerprint,systems of migration,breeding,and heterozygosity can be assessed.

Question 29

Inbreeding usually increases the heterozygosity of specific genes in a population.

Question 30

Population fragmentation results from conditions that reduce habitats and trap individual populations in undeveloped land surrounded by areas of developed land.

Question 31

The strategy of boosting numbers of organisms in a declining population by transplantation of the same species collected from more numerous populations elsewhere is called ________.

Question 32

The founder effect generally results in an increase in heterozygosity.

Question 33

Genetic variation within populations can be measured as the frequency of individuals in the population that are heterozygous at a given locus or as the number of different alleles at a locus that are present in the gene pool.

Question 34

DNA profiles can be used to detect and quantify genetic differences between individuals.

Question 35

Allozyme analysis allows an investigator an opportunity to determine the sequence of a particular stretch of DNA.